The Administration of Zakat in Lagos and Ogun States

Abstract

Zakat being one of the five fundamental pillars of Islam is meant to be executed with high sense of duty and commitment. This paper examines how it is being administered in Lagos and Ogun States of the south – western Nigeria. The paper makes the activities of non-governmental organizations working on zakat collection and disbursement its basis of assessment. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to select the zakat agents under review.  The paper examined the template of Shari’ah for zakat and thereafter assessed the current state of zakat administration. It was observed that there was no definite procedure on ground for wealth evaluation and that zakat has almost been restricted to cash payment at the expense of other zakatable items like agricultural produce and livestock. Circumvention of zakat by eligible payers and inadequate record keeping on the part of administrators are the leading challenges facing administration of zakat in south –western Nigeria. Appropriate recommendations were offered for better performance

Keywords: Zakat Administration, Poverty Alleviation, Zakat Agents